To Live the Magic
by Fire and Night
Summary: Have you ever wished that the world of Harry Potter was a reality? Well, when two sisters discover their hidden roots, that dream may not be so far off...
1. Default Chapter

To Live the Magic  
  
Co-Written by The Little Corinthian and Fire & Night  
  
(LC's A/N- Many thanks to Meagan, Abby, and Matt for their characters, Erin for going camping with us and having the idea to co-write this in the first place, and to Amanda, Katie, and John for their signatures and writing, and, of course, the Goddess J.K. Rowling who without, we wouldn't have such lovely characters to torture and put in strange situations! Thanks, guys!)  
  
(F&N's A/N- Thank you soooo much to J.K. Rowling for just being the genius she is, thanks to Shannon for bringing me camping (and getting me out of being grounded :0P), and to Kara and Nicola for all the fun!)  
  
Disclaimer- You know the deal, any character you do not recognize is ours, any you do are J.K. Rowling's, and coincidence with real life people or events are purely coincidental, etc, etc, etc. (LC: Besides, if they were our characters, d'you really think that I'd owe my dad money? Heck, I could buy my own B'way show, instead of writing about them!)  
  
Now, on with the story!  
  
To Live the Magic  
  
Prologue  
  
Have you ever wondered what it would be life if life were a bit more, well, magical? I certainly did, especially after reading the 'Harry Potter' series. Hi. My name is Leah Edwards, and never in a hundred years would I have dreamed of this happening. 'What happening?' you ask? Let me explain:  
  
My parents divorced when I was three. The only memory I have of my dad is a quick kiss on the cheek and a whispered 'I love you, Princess'. Mom says he was British, but that's really all I know of him.  
  
My mother, Denise, is also British. She moved us to New York City shortly after the divorce to resume work on Broadway, which is what she had been doing when she met Dad. My twin sister, Lydia, and I have quite literally been acting since before we can remember, with little cameo roles in the shows Mom was in, mostly for comic relief, on to when we were old enough to audition ourselves. I tend to favor musicals, while Lydia is the best Shakespearean actress I've ever seen.  
  
When we were 11, Mom got a job offer that required her to re-locate to London. But we told her that playing Grizabella in the revival production of 'CATS' was too good of an opportunity to pass up. So within a month, our bags were packed, our visas were checked, and we were on our way to jolly old England.  
  
Theater's my life. I adore it in all shapes, sizes, and forms. So when, during the year I turned 14, I was invited to join a year long musical workshop and production company, I jumped at the chance. It was a dream come true.  
  
In the morning, the other kids, teens, adults, and I would have dance classes, drama classes, vocal lessons, and academic tutoring. In the afternoon, we'd rehearse whatever show we were currently performing. And in the evening, when the curtain went up, and the overture started, the joy known as theater took hold. I never thought there was a more delightful and real magic in the world. That view changed the summer I turned 15, with only four weeks left of the workshop. ~  
  
CHAPTER 1  
  
WEEK 50- THEATRICAL WORKSHOP  
  
BASEMENT OF HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE, LONDON, ENGLAND  
  
'DRESSING ROOM ROW'  
  
"Psst! Leeeeeeeeeeeah!"  
  
Leah Edwards looked up from where she was doing her chemistry homework. Her twin, Lydia, stood in the doorway, accompanied by one of Leah's best friends, Peter Cooper.  
  
"Hey, you two!" Leah tossed her pen, book, and paper down on the dressing table and pulled her long auburn hair up off of her neck. Although you might not say she was 'stunningly beautiful', her warm gray eyes and her long auburn hair gave her an innocent look. And even though she was not exactly slim (but certainly not fat!) she danced ballet, jazz, tap, Irish, and Highland dancing as well as anybody, and sang, as Lydia said, like an angel with an attitude.  
  
The production company (Leapin' Lizards! Productions) was preparing to perform a musical adaptation of 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone', set to open that night. Leah was cast as Hermione Granger, while Peter played the Boy-Who-Lived himself, Harry Potter. Rumor had it that even J.K. Rowling herself was coming to the performance that night!  
  
"You almost finished?" Lydia asked her twin. Lydia mirrored Leah down to everything except her hair, which was dyed blond for a role she was currently playing (Beatrice in a production of 'Much Ado About Nothing').  
  
Leah glanced back over to her book. "Almost, but I need to ask Browning a question before I can finish it, so I'm as done as I can be for now."  
  
"Perfect," Peter told her, "because Margaret wanted you to stop by in about ten minutes. She wants to make sure that your robes are hemmed the proper length-"  
  
"For the billionth time!" Leah grinned. "Kay, I'll stop by the costume shop on my way to find Browning."  
  
"AND," Lydia continued, and Leah paused mid-step, "before you go with Cherie, Hannah, Andrew, and the lot to get dinner, you're supposed to call Mom on her cell." She paused, "She got another proposal from Karl today."  
  
Leah narrowed her eyes. Lord Karl Nicholson was a handsome, opulent, titled, suave (and, as Leah liked to add, obnoxious, pompous, rude, stupid, and egotistical) British businessman whom had been courting Denise Edwards, the twins' mother, for the past three years. The previous year, he had asked Denise to become his wife, but was turned down. He had been hinting often recently that he was going to propose again soon.  
  
"I still don't see why you don't like him," Lydia commented as Leah bristled at the thought of her mother marrying Lord Dimwit, as she had taken to calling him.  
  
"I know he's nice to you, but he's so, so-"  
  
"Full of himself?" Peter offered. (He didn't like Karl any more than Leah did.)  
  
"That, and so- fake, I guess is the word. It's like he's acting when he's with us, like he's wearing a mask." Leah shrugged. "I don't know, I just don't like him."  
  
Lydia smiled slightly, "Well, you better figure out why soon, because we very well could become a part of his family in the near future."  
  
Leah and Peter exchanged a glance and rolled their eyes.  
  
"I'd be Lady Leah Dimwit-Nicholson!"  
  
Lydia laughed. "Ok, hurry up, you're going to be late."Grinning, the three were halfway down the hall (dubbed 'Dressing Room Row') when Leah stopped in her tracks and clapped a hand to her forehead.  
  
"Shoot! Kristen dropped my mail off and I forgot it! Abby was supposed to write me about the new baby-"  
  
"You can get it later," Lydia said, glancing at her watch, "You're going to be late for your fitting."  
  
So they continued on their way, while, under a postcard from Grandpa Paul, vacationing in Cairo, a letter from Abby and baby, and several letters from friends back in the States, a yellow parchment letter, with a red seal stamped on the back, went un-noticed.  
  
That is, until Piper, Leah's dressing room partner, came in to find the props for the show that night.  
  
"I know they're here somewhere," she mumbled to herself, rustling through the articles on the dressing table the girls shared. Shuffling papers aside, she un-covered the parchment envelope. "Ah ha!" was the triumphant cry. Not glancing at the address and assuming that it was one of the prop envelopes (Leah had been addressing them with her pristine script), Kristen scooped it up and dumped it in the box with the rest of the prop letters. Whistling, she hurried out the door and down the hall, the envelope unidentifiable from it's brothers and sisters.  
  
That is, for the address, written in acid green ink:  
  
Miss Leah Edwards.  
  
Dressing Room #12.  
  
Her Majesty's Theatre.  
  
London.  
  
And outside, on the theatre's darkened roof, a snowy white owl took flight.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
The house was packed, as the company's reputation had only increased since it's creation the year before. True to the rumor, J.K. Rowling was sitting in Box #5, her husband next to her.  
  
On the stage, as the cast finished holding a long note, the actors delivered their lines through the break in the music.  
  
Uncle Vernon: (to Harry) Come on, boy!  
  
Hermione: (uncertianly, to Harry) Er, have a nice holiday.  
  
Harry: Oh, I will.  
  
Ron: With them?  
  
Harry: You see, THEY don't know we can't use magic over the summer!  
  
As Hermione and Ron laughed, Harry smiled, waved, and followed Uncle Vernon off the stage. The full company joined in for the final chorus.  
  
Company: You're our greatest hero,  
  
You're the Boy-Who-Lived!  
  
As they finished and the curtain came down, the audience burst into applause. J.K. Rowling applauded, smiling. Leaning over to her husband, she whispered into his ear, "Well, I think they did a pretty good job with the casting, don't you?"  
  
Her raven haired husband smiled, his brilliant green eyes visible in the dim light reflected from the stage lights. "I think your family has better hair than their Weasleys, Ginny."  
  
She smiled. "I love you."  
  
He smiled back. "I can never hear or tell you that enough."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Backstage, after the curtain came down a final time (Five extra curtain calls later!), the cast was on cloud Nine.  
  
"Peter, Adam, you guys did a fantastic job!" Leah cried, throwing her arms around her co-stars.  
  
Peter and Adam Harrington (who played Ron and was Leah's other best friend) grinned back, the adrenaline still running.  
  
"I think that was the best show the company has ever done, don't you think?" Adam grinned.  
  
"Definitely." Peter and Leah agreed.  
  
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"  
  
The cast and crew quieted down momentarily to glance over to where their director, a spirited woman named Jackie, was standing on a chair, her beaming smile giving them all the praise they needed.  
  
"I have a special announcement to make," she continued, "We had a special guest this evening, and it was her creative genius that first brought life to the characters you just portrayed. I'm speaking of none other than J.K Rowling!"  
  
The cast burst into as much applause as the audience had just shown them. J.K. Rowling smiled and waved, applauding them back. Harry stayed back with his wife's entourage, clapping and smiling.  
  
"You were fantastic tonight!" J.K. Rowling praised them, "I'm honored that my characters could be performed with such passion and talent!" She grinned. "Thank you for the opportunity to see them come to life off of film."  
  
The cast cheered as the writer began threading her way through the cast and crew, congratulating left and right.  
  
Lydia and Denise, entering the backstage area, spotted Leah talking happily with Jackie and Garret, the producer and owner of the company. Lydia snuck up behind her sister and threw her arms around her neck. "You were fantastic, Leah!"  
  
Her twin turned and returned the hug. "Thanks, it was so much fun!" She winked at Lydia, "Ready to give musicals a try?"  
  
Lydia laughed. "No, thanks, I'll stick with good old Bill."  
  
Denise kissed her daughter on the head and smiled, "You were brilliant, honey. I'm so proud of you."  
  
Leah grinned. "Thanks, mom." She spotted Adam and Peter waving from a bit away, so she excused herself, leaving her mom and sister to talk with the director and producer and made her way to her friends.  
  
"You know," Adam smiled, "I don't think I've ever had so much fun in a show."  
  
"I second that!" Peter and Leah replied at the same time. The trio laughed.  
  
J.K. Rowling reached the group. "Fantastic job, you guys. Mr. Harrington, that was hilarious. Most certainly one of the best performances of Ron I've ever seen."  
  
Adam, seemingly shocked at being addressed by J.K. Rowling herself, beamed. "Thank you, Ms. Rowling."  
  
The red-haired writer smiled and turned to Peter. "Fantastic. That was an award winning performance, Mr. Cooper."  
  
"Thanks!"  
  
Finally, J.K. Rowling turned to Leah. "You were brilliant, Miss Edwards. You delivered everything Hermione is made of beautifully."  
  
Leah blushed. "Thank you, Ms. Rowling."  
  
Ms. Rowling smiled, studying the young actress's face. "You know, you look just like one of my old friends from school."  
  
Leah blinked. "Really?"  
  
At that moment, Denise and Lydia made their way over.  
  
"Leah, Jackie wants to talk to yo-" Denise broke off abruptly as she looked at J.K. Rowling, who's jaw had dropped.  
  
"Denise?"  
  
Denise mouthed wordlessly, obviously stunned.  
  
"Denise!" Ms. Rowling launched forward and threw her arms around the woman.  
  
"Mom? W-"  
  
"What's going on?" His wife's cry had brought Harry over. When he caught sight of Denise, he, too, stop and stared.  
  
"Denise?"  
  
Finally, the flood walls broke and Denise sobbed into J.K. Rowling's shoulder. The tall, black haired man joined the hug, wrapping his arms around both the crying women.  
  
Denise choked out "Ginny, I didn't think I'd ever get to see you again!" just as J.K. Rowling said tearfully "We thought you were dead!"  
  
The rest of the cast, with the exception of Leah, Lydia, Peter and Adam, had either lost interest and gone back to their conversations, or never noticed in the first place. Leah, however, watched the scene, very confused. Her mother obviously knew these people, but why was she crying? What had J.K. Rowling meant about 'We thought you were dead!" ? And why did J.K. Rowling's husband looked strangely familiar? Leah knew she had seen him before.  
  
Suddenly, Lydia grabbed Leah's arm. "Look at his forehead!"  
  
And suddenly, she realized why she recognized the man. Under the thick, messy black hair that fell across his forehead, there was visible a thin, pale scar. It wouldn't have meant anything to Leah, except for one thing-  
  
"Wicked," Peter murmured as he and Adam turned their gaze upon the scar.  
  
It was a jagged line. A lightning bolt.  
  
"Oh my God." Leah breathed. "He looks just like-"  
  
"God, Ginny, Harry, I missed you all so much!" Denise sobbed.  
  
Leah just about fell over.  
  
Lydia gasped. "They're Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter!  
  
(LC's A/N: Well, what did you think? It's our first venture into the HP fan fiction world, and it will make much more sense as the story progresses. Strange, no? :0) Ah, and to make life easier on everyone, I made up a cast list for this production of HP, which can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/musicals/littlecorinthian/cast.htm . Cut and paste the link, as it's Angelfire. Review if you want, flames are good for marshmallows!) 


	2. Chapter 2 Lydia

Chapter 2  
  
Those words did not just come out of my mouth, I thought. "Leah, tell me those people right there, standing in front of us, are Harry and Ginny. Tell me we are really standing in front of witches and wizards!" I was about to say more when a thought occurred to me. If Mom knew these people and had gone to school with them, then.  
  
"Leah, our mom is a witch!!" Our mother, Denise Edwards, was a broom flying, wand waving, spell casting witch! This is so cool, I said to myself, so cool. My brain went into automatic puzzle mode. I was trying to figure out why Mom would hide the fact that she was a witch and ignore the persistent taping on my shoulder at the same time. It didn't work.  
  
"What is it?" I snapped at my sister, "Cant you see-"  
  
"Lyddi," Leah interrupted, "if our mom is a witch, what are we?"  
  
~*~  
  
Backstage in the prop room, a letter addressed to Leah was being stored away with all of the rest of the props from the show, never to be seen again. At that moment, not so far away, two owls were being made ready for a journey.  
  
~*~  
  
What are we? Leah's words repeated again and again in my mind. What are we? The thought hadn't even occurred to me. We might be witches. Wow. I didn't know how to respond. Leah and Peter, however, did. The started in at once, firing question after question at Mom, Ginny, and Harry.  
  
"Are you really a wizard?  
  
How is life as a witch?  
  
Is Dumbledore really that hairy?  
  
Was your house that small?  
  
Are you and Draco still enemies?  
  
Did you really think that our play was that good?  
  
Is it fun?  
  
How is butterbeer made?  
  
Do you -" Leah was abruptly cut off by all three adults yelling,  
  
"ENOUGH!" She and Peter had been shooting off questions so fast there was hardly any time to think of an answer to the first one they asked. "Now," Ginny Weasley/ J.K. Rowling said, "lets drop this subject for awhile." Turning to Denise she asked, " Why don't you and the girls, and of course Adam and Peter here, come by our house tomorrow for supper? That is your day off, right?" At Leah's nod she gave the house number to Denise. "We shall expect you around 7, okay?" With hugs all around, Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter exited the building, leaving my sister and I with a thousand questions to ask our mom.  
  
We turned to her to ask her one simple question, "Why?"  
  
"Don't ask now. Please?"  
  
How could we not? I wanted to ask. How can we find out that our mom is a witch, we might be, and that our favorite novel series was real, and not ask questions?  
  
Unfortunately, we found out how. Mom hid in her room until 6:45 pm, 15 minutes before we had to be at the Potter's. When she finally emerged from her shelter, she came face to face with Leah and me. Both of us were impatient to go and each had thousands of questions ready to leap off our lips.  
  
"Mom wh-"  
  
"Not now! Please?" Not now, I thought, When will we be able to ask then, if not now? Leah, as usual, seemed to be able to read my mind, because in the next second after I thought the question she asked it,  
  
"When? When can we talk? You always seem to say 'Not now, later.' When can we talk!?" I could tell she was getting frustrated, because she never ever raised her to anyone. Well, anyone besides me.  
  
"Not now. Later, dinner maybe." End of subject. Case closed. Her mouth was sealed tighter than water-proof windows.  
  
"Can we go then? I don't to make a bad impression," Leah never ever wants to make a bad impression. I guess she is too much the actor in this way.  
  
"Yeah, let's go. I don't to be late either. Ginny hates it when people are late. Unlike you, I have seen her when you are on her bad side, she doesn't let you forget it either."  
  
It took us 10 minutes to get to the Potter's 2 story house in london. It was a really sweet looking, with a wrap-around porch and ivy growing up the walls to the windows on an old wooden trellis. There was a huge tree in the front yard that looked great for climbing. Leah and I glanced at eachother, and I knew she thought the place was perfect. The traditional English garden was full of beautiful flowers, and with the setting sun shining through it, it looked almost magical. It probably was, I thought, concidering just whose garden it was.  
  
We knocked on the door, and inside we heard a dog barking and someone thundering down the stairs yelling,  
  
"Hold on, I'll be right there! Harry, hurry! They are here!" There was a little pause and then, "Honey, your hair will never lie flat, so give it up and come on!" Leah and I looked at eachother and grinned. A second later the door flew open, and there was Ginny Potter, looking slightly ruffled. Ushering us inside she said,  
  
"Sorry it took so long to get to the door. Harry and Jacob will be down in a minute." At our puzzeled looks she realized that she had never mentioned a "Jacob" before. "Oh! I forgot to tell you, I have a son. He is about your age," she said looking at Leah and me, "His name is Jacob."  
  
She led us down a hallway filled with pictures of her, Harry, and Jacob. Leah looked at one of the pictures of him in PJ's playing a guitar.  
  
"I wanna meet him! He looks cute!" She whispered to me. I was going to respond, but I had just walked into the most, homey, confortable feeling room I have ever been in. There were several woven rugs in a semi circle around a fireplace that had a warm fire going in it. The oak wood floor was worn, but didn't creek as we walked to the furnature by the fire.  
  
"Have a seat anywhere! There is pleanty of room!" Ginny said as she parked it on a love seat to the left of the fire. Leah and I claimed the the sofa facing the fire, while Mom grabbed the big chair to the right of it. Harry walked in just as she sat down and walked immediately to the open seat next to his wife.  
  
"So, how are you guys doing tonight?" He asked just as Jacob walked in. Nobody noticed his arrival except me, so I elbowed my dear, oblivious, sister and whispered to her,  
  
"Hey sis, look who just arrived." Leah looked at Jacob out of the corner of her eye, back at me, grinned, and whispered back,  
  
"Kill me now, and I will die a very happy girl." 


End file.
